Compiling GNATColl on Windows

Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[mhardeman25]

I have been trying to compile GNATColl on Windows 8.1 and I'm having some trouble. I'm hoping somebody here has some tips/tricks that I may have missed.

I do have the latest source from the svn repository here:
http://viewvc.libre.adacore.com/viewvc.cgi/Public/trunk/gps/gnatlib/

Location of important components:
* GNATColl src: C:\development\tools\ada\gnatlib
* Adacore Gnat GPL: C:\development\tools\ada\GNAT\2014
* Mingw with Msys and GNAT: C:\development\tools\common\mingw
* Postgresql: C:\development\tools\sql\postgresql
* SQLite: C:\development\tools\sql\sqlite

Environment Variables:
* Path: C:\development\tools\ada\GNAT\2014\bin;C:\development\tools\common\mingw\bin;C:\development\tools\sql\postgresql\bin;C:\development\tools\sql\sqlite;C:\development\tools\java\jdk x64\bin;C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Roaming\npm

I have tried it both with GNAT\2014\bin first and with mingw\bin first. (switching which GNAT compiler/gnatlib I was using)

Compilation steps:
run msys.bat
cd /c/development/tools/ada/gnatlib
./configure -prefix=/c/development/tools/ada/gnat/2014/ --with-postgresql=/c/development/tools/sql/postgresql/ --with-sqlite=/c/development/tools/sql/sqlite/
make

Failure message using GNAT\2014\bin:
c:/development/tools/ada/gnat/2014/bin/../libexec/gcc/i686-pc-mingw32/4.7.4/ld.exe: cannot find -lpq
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status
gprlib: c:\development\tools\ada\gnat\2014\bin\gcc execution error
gprbuild: could not build library for project gnatcoll_postgres
make: *** [build_library_type/relocatable] Error 4

Failure message using mingw\bin:
gprbuild -m -j0 -XLIBRARY_TYPE=relocatable -Pgnatcoll_build -p
gnatcoll.gpr:34:10: unknown file "xutil.ads"
gnatcoll.gpr:34:23: unknown file "xutil.adb"
gnatcoll.gpr:34:36: unknown file "xsnamest.adb"
gprbuild: "gnatcoll_build" processing failed
make: *** [build_library_type/relocatable] Error 4

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Michael Hardeman]

Also in reguards to the -lpq error when using GNAT GPL compiler. I have tried exporting LDFLAGS='-L/c/development/tools/sql/postgresql/lib' as well as adding that folder to my PATH environment variable.

It still can't find that library (libpq.dll).

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[David Botton]

> It still can't find that library (libpq.dll).

It is not looking for libpq.dll but rather libpq.a for your gcc environment. 

http://www.mingw.org/wiki/createimportlibraries

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[David Botton]

> It is not looking for libpq.dll but rather libpq.a for your gcc environment. 
> 
> http://www.mingw.org/wiki/createimportlibraries

If you are doing a windows centric project consider using ADO, there are database bindings in GWindows - https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnavi/

If doing something cross platform ODBC also an option see http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de/ada/components.htm

David Botton

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Michael Hardeman]

On Monday, December 15, 2014 10:50:01 AM UTC-5, David Botton wrote:
> > It is not looking for libpq.dll but rather libpq.a for your gcc environment. 
> > 
> > http://www.mingw.org/wiki/createimportlibraries
> 
> If you are doing a windows centric project consider using ADO, there are database bindings in GWindows - https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnavi/
> 
> If doing something cross platform ODBC also an option see http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de/ada/components.htm
> 
> David Botton

I'll look into dmitry's ODBC bindings. They may be sufficient for my needs.

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Björn Lundin]

On 2014-12-15 17:10, Michael Hardeman wrote:
> On Monday, December 15, 2014 10:50:01 AM UTC-5, David Botton wrote:
>>> It is not looking for libpq.dll but rather libpq.a for your gcc environment. 
>>>
>>> http://www.mingw.org/wiki/createimportlibraries
>>
>> If you are doing a windows centric project consider using ADO, there are database bindings in GWindows - https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnavi/
>>
>> If doing something cross platform ODBC also an option see http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de/ada/components.htm
>>
>> David Botton
> 
> I'll look into dmitry's ODBC bindings. They may be sufficient for my needs.
> 


If it is just postgres you want,
I use this
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26175828/sql-pg.zip

It's based on an old binding from Samuel Tardieu,
on which I put another layer on a somewhat higher
abstraction layer.


For just reading...

    Stm : Sql.Statement_Type;
    T : Sql.Transaction_Type;
    Sql.Connect(Db_Name => "My_Db" => user ...);
    Stm.Prepare("select COL1,COL2 from MY_TABLE where a = :A and b = :B");
    T.Start;
    Stm.Set("A",Some_Value);
    Stm.Set("B",another_value);
    --Open a cursor at the backend - This executes the query
    Stm.Open_Cursor;
    Stm.Fetch(End_Of_Set);
    If not End_of_set then
      Stm.Get("COL1",Some_Variable);
      Stm.Get("COL2",Some_Other_Variable);
    end if;
    Stm.close_cursor();
    T.Commit();
    Sql.Close_Session;

    use Some_Variable and Some_Other_Variable

--
Björn

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Dmitry A. Kazakov]

On Mon, 15 Dec 2014 22:55:18 +0100, Björn Lundin wrote:

> If it is just postgres you want,
> I use this
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26175828/sql-pg.zip
> 
> It's based on an old binding from Samuel Tardieu,
> on which I put another layer on a somewhat higher
> abstraction layer.
> 
> For just reading...
> 
>     Stm : Sql.Statement_Type;
>     T : Sql.Transaction_Type;
>     Sql.Connect(Db_Name => "My_Db" => user ...);
>     Stm.Prepare("select COL1,COL2 from MY_TABLE where a = :A and b = :B");
>     T.Start;
>     Stm.Set("A",Some_Value);
>     Stm.Set("B",another_value);
>     --Open a cursor at the backend - This executes the query
>     Stm.Open_Cursor;
>     Stm.Fetch(End_Of_Set);
>     If not End_of_set then
>       Stm.Get("COL1",Some_Variable);
>       Stm.Get("COL2",Some_Other_Variable);
>     end if;
>     Stm.close_cursor();
>     T.Commit();
>     Sql.Close_Session;
> 
>     use Some_Variable and Some_Other_Variable

Roughly same in ODBC:

declare
   Environment : aliased ODBC_Environment;
   Connection : aliased ODBC_Connection (Environment'Access);
begin
   Connect (Connection, "My_DB", "Myself", ...);
   declare
      Command : aliased ODBC_Command (Connection'Access);
   begin
      Prepare (Command, "SELECT COL1,COL2 FROM ...");
      Execute (Command);
      Fetch (Command);
      Some_Variable := Get (Command'Access, 1, On_Error);
      Some_Other_Variable := Get (Command'Access, 2, Always);
   end;
end;

No need to fiddle with cursors explicitly and nothing to commit, if only
reading.

ODBC has a lot of problems, but it usually is simpler than native clients.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Björn Lundin]

On 2014-12-15 23:37, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> No need to fiddle with cursors explicitly and nothing to commit, if only
> reading.

hmm, yes. I got the spec from work, where we use Oracle
and Ms-sql-server from win and Aix.
I wanted the pg-interface to be code compatible,
with that, for future use. - If we ever start using pg at work.
The idea is that any interaction with the db, with no transaction,
is a sign of error. Thats why a transaction is needed.
Good or bad, that is the reason, libpq itself need no transaction for
read-only.

> ODBC has a lot of problems, but it usually is simpler than native clients.

I've had problems using a cursor in a cursor with ODBC.

  T.Start;
  Stm.Set("A",Some_Value);
  Stm.Open_Cursor;
  Stm.Fetch(End_Of_Set);
  If not End_of_set then
    Stm.Get("COL1",Some_Variable);
    Stm2.Set("COL3", Some_Variable) -- use value from stm in stm2
    Stm2.Execute;      <-- bang - crash
  end if;
  Stm.Close_Cursor;
  T.Commit;

Turned out I had to enable mars - multiple active recordset
But did not work on unix-odbc from linux with sql-server.

And I do not even dare to try it on AIX.
Native client however, works fine.

But for windows, perhaps odbc is a better choise

--
Björn

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Björn Lundin]

On 2014-12-15 23:37, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> 
> Roughly same in ODBC:
> 
> declare
>    Environment : aliased ODBC_Environment;
>    Connection : aliased ODBC_Connection (Environment'Access);
> begin
>    Connect (Connection, "My_DB", "Myself", ...);
>    declare
>       Command : aliased ODBC_Command (Connection'Access);
>    begin
>       Prepare (Command, "SELECT COL1,COL2 FROM ...");
>       Execute (Command);
>       Fetch (Command);
>       Some_Variable := Get (Command'Access, 1, On_Error);
>       Some_Other_Variable := Get (Command'Access, 2, Always);
>    end;
> end;
> 
> No need to fiddle with cursors explicitly and nothing to commit, if only
> reading.


Actually you do need to fiddle with server-side cursors sometimes.
Like if you have a very large table and want to treat all rows.

I've got a simulation program that reads a table of 30_000_000 rows,
that are recordings from actual events since this June.

The simulation reads the data in timestamp order (which is a field in
the table) and tries different algorithms on the data.
The outcome is somewhat based on previous outcome, so I do not want
to split the recordset.

The one with best outcome survives ans is tried in real life later on.

But the table grows, and I expect it to be ca 33 M rows at the ens of
the year. And next year, if I record the whole year, I'll end up with
60M+ rows.

For that, I _really_ like cursors on the server side.
It seems like your ODBC reads the whole recordset into the clients memory?

Or do I misunderstand it?



--Björn

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Dmitry A. Kazakov]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2014 09:48:16 +0100, Björn Lundin wrote:

> But the table grows, and I expect it to be ca 33 M rows at the ens of
> the year. And next year, if I record the whole year, I'll end up with
> 60M+ rows.

But you could use the time stamp in the SELECT's WHEN? 

> For that, I _really_ like cursors on the server side.
> It seems like your ODBC reads the whole recordset into the clients memory?

No idea. It probably depends on the driver.

I never used ODBC to its end, because it would defeat the purpose of
keeping it RDBMS-agnostic. The cases where I used DB I tired to use the
most basic set of the features.
 
> Or do I misunderstand it?

The greatest problem of ODBC is that it practically does not mandate
anything. So you must question the capabilities of the actual driver and
then adapt your application to what is available. For an Ada programmers it
is the world turned upside-down, and a patented nightmare to write a
minimally robust and maintainable application.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Björn Lundin]

On 2014-12-16 11:10, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> On Tue, 16 Dec 2014 09:48:16 +0100, Björn Lundin wrote:
> 
>> But the table grows, and I expect it to be ca 33 M rows at the ens of
>> the year. And next year, if I record the whole year, I'll end up with
>> 60M+ rows.
> 
> But you could use the time stamp in the SELECT's WHEN? 
> 

well no, not in a clean way. As I said


"The outcome is somewhat based on previous outcome, so I do not want
to split the recordset.-- "

That is I do NOT want a to use a where-clause based on the timestamp.

But I could, if I restructure the simulator. But then,
we are into redesign because of limitations in the implementation.
Yes, sometimes reality comes and bites you,
and you need to give in.
But if it can be avoided, I prefer not to change programs
just because data size increases.


>The greatest problem of ODBC is that it practically does not mandate
>anything. So you must question the capabilities of the actual driver
>and then adapt your application to what is available. For an Ada
>programmers it is the world turned upside-down, and a patented
>nightmare to write a minimally robust and maintainable application.

Indeed.

--
Björn

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Björn Lundin]

On 2014-12-15 22:55, Björn Lundin wrote:
> If it is just postgres you want,
> I use this
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26175828/sql-pg.zip


bad link - wrong file
This one it should be
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26175828/pg_ifc.tar.gz



-- 
--
Björn

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Michael Hardeman]

On Monday, December 15, 2014 10:47:12 AM UTC-5, David Botton wrote:
> > It still can't find that library (libpq.dll).
> 
> It is not looking for libpq.dll but rather libpq.a for your gcc environment. 
> 
> http://www.mingw.org/wiki/createimportlibraries

generating a libpq.a file using the dll tool does not change the error.

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Shark8]

On 15-Dec-14 06:06, mhardeman25@gmail.com wrote:
> I have been trying to compile GNATColl on Windows 8.1 and I'm having some trouble.
> I'm hoping somebody here has some tips/tricks that I may have missed.

I don't think I ever got a good build-compile/link of Gnatcoll's DB 
stuff. Even when it would compile/install the library, it would fail on 
the linking of the project using it.

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Michael Hardeman]

On Monday, December 15, 2014 2:46:34 PM UTC-5, Shark8 wrote:
> On 15-Dec-14 06:06, mhardeman25@gmail.com wrote:
> > I have been trying to compile GNATColl on Windows 8.1 and I'm having some trouble.
> > I'm hoping somebody here has some tips/tricks that I may have missed.
> 
> I don't think I ever got a good build-compile/link of Gnatcoll's DB 
> stuff. Even when it would compile/install the library, it would fail on 
> the linking of the project using it.

It's not just the DB stuff I need, I also need the JSON stuff.

Re: Compiling GNATColl on Windows

[Björn Lundin]

On 2014-12-16 18:50, Michael Hardeman wrote:

> 
> It's not just the DB stuff I need, I also need the JSON stuff.

There are only 5 files (in the version I got) that relates to JSON.
I just ripped them out, and used as any other code.
No installation at all


--
Björn